Sometimes we need variable length fibers. A typical application is underwater photography when we trigger an external strobe with the onboard flash. The connection between the two flash can be an optical cable. In order place the strobe to different positions we need a variable length optical cable. The easiest way is to curl the optical fibers. I tried it before but my first attempt failed. Now I used a different approach, which worked perfectly for the very first time. I curled the fiber very tightly around a wooden stick with the proper diameter. Actually I used a wooden spoon for this purpose. I fixed the end of the fiber to the stick with a tape.
After reaching the proper length the second end was also taped to the stick. To keep this form I placed the curled fibers into hot water (around 90 C) . After the water reached boiling temperature I let it cool down around 5 more minutes. I kept the fibers in the hot water for 2 minutes. Last time I used a hair drier for this "melting step" but it didn't work that well.
Subsequently the fibers were cooled down in a glass of cold water:
That's it. The result is a nice spiral keeping its form after expanding it:
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